Can the government take away my laptop?

Much of the response online to the 9th Circuit Court's decision has been critical. There are numerous Web sites that lob the term unconstitutional around. Others focus on how people can protect their equipment and information when traveling to the United States. A few Web sites support the initiative, pointing out the very real difficulty in protecting a nation like the United States from the threat of a terrorist attack.

Some critics say that the policy is too broad to be considered a protection against terrorism. They say that if federal agents can search electronic devices for evidence of any crime at all -- as was the case with Michael Arnold -- then the policy doesn't really target terrorists. Instead, it targets everyone.

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Some people shift from criticism into the realm of conspiracy theory. These people suggest that organizations like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) are lobbying for these policies. The theorists believe that these organizations hope to use federal agents to search for illegally obtained music or media files. Effectively, the federal government would act as the music police. While there's little doubt these organizations will benefit from the U.S. policy on searches and seizures, there's no real evidence to link them with the decision of the courts.

According to The Washington Post, several international businesses are changing their policies on international travel. The businesses are urging executives to avoid storing confidential business information on laptops when traveling to the United States. International businesses fear that the U.S. policy will compromise critical, proprietary information. In addition, if the critical information only exists on the confiscated device, the business is at the mercy of the U.S. government [source: Nakashima].

Some bloggers focus not on changing the policy or protesting, but on how to get around the system. Here are a few of the methods they suggest:

Leaving your electronics at home when you leave and return to the country

Partitioning your hard drive using two levels of encryption to hide the partition

Storing private information on a device like a smart card or flash drive and keeping it on your person

Of course, hiding information from customs agents isn't advisable. For one thing, if a government agent catches on that someone is hiding information, things will likely get much worse before they get better. For another, if enough people take measures to hide information, the government might push for more invasive policies. It's probably safe to say this story is far from over.

Keeping Secrets

Some critics say that the search and seizure policy won't be very effective as far as preventing terrorism is concerned. That's because there are ways to hide data. The critics point out that anyone determined to commit a real act of terrorism will likely take precautions against being caught.